This invention relates generally to a process for the incorporation of Vitamin C into a cooked, candy-like comestible without significant loss of the vitamin and to vitamin-containing comestibles produced by the inventive process.
There have been developed and marketed a number of candy-like vitamin containing formulations primarily directed toward children who resist taking vitamin pills or who have difficulty in swallowing pills. Those formulations containing Vitamin C are typically of a gritty consistency and are formed by tabletting a dry mix of sugars, vitamins and binder.
A manufacturing approach commonly used in the prior art is to tumble the dry mixture with additions of small amounts of water to form granules. The granules are then compression molded, typically in a tabletting press, to form the chewable vitamin pills so prevalent on the market today. Tablets are formed using the same process but they are coated to facilitate easy swallowing. Both the tumbling and compression molding steps are carried out without auxiliary heating because of the instability of many of the vitamins to heat. In fact, it is commonly accepted in the industry that heat processing methods must be totally avoided in the manufacture of vitamin C-containing formulations.
The advantages of a hard candy-like, Vitamin C-containing formulation which is suckable and attractive in flavor and color have long been recognized in the industry. Such a formulation provides for a natural time release of the Vitamin C allowing for maximum absorption as well as maximizing the antimicrobial effect of the vitamin on teeth and gums. There is less likelihood of stomach upset with slow ingestion. Possibilities of choking, as with tablets, is greatly reduced especially among small children and the elderly. In addition, formulations of this type have a high degree of appeal for most consumers.
In spite of the apparent and recognized advantages of hard candy-like, Vitamin C formulations, the industry has not yet been able to successfully produce them. A major reason for this failure is the delicate and unstable nature of the Vitamin C molecule (ascorbic acid) and of its commonly used salts. It is so chemically fragile that exposure to air or heat for even modest periods of time results in substantial vitamin loss. For example, Department of Agriculture data shows that simple cooking procedures often cause a fifty percent or more loss of Vitamin C. When baked-in-the-skin potatoes sit on a steam table for thirty minutes, there is a 34% Vitamin C loss with the loss rising to 59% over the next fifteen minutes. Peeled and cut potatoes experience about 39% loss in Vitamin C during cooking with that loss rising to about 95% during the first hour on a steam table. A Vitamin C containing throat lozenge, currently being marketed, is reputed to lose one-third to one-half of the original Vitamin C content during formulation.
Muhler et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,732 describes various anticariogenic candies containing a combination of a soluble aluminum salt and either adipic acid or ascorbic acid as the cariostatic additive. Examples shown in the patent utilize adipic acid in both tabletted and cooked candy with ascorbic acid use limited to tabletted candy only. While patentees do not comment on the reasons for this selection, it is well known that adipic acid is far more chemically stable than is ascorbic acid.
The impracticality of compounding ascorbic acid or any of its commonly employed salts to form a comestible requiring high temperature processing was long ago recognized by Ahrens in U.S. Pat. No. 3,525,791. Ahrens found that only one salt of ascorbic acid, namely calcium ascorbate dihydrate, had sufficient heat stability to withstand processing without significant decomposition at those temperatures commonly employed in candy making, i.e., 250.degree. F. and greater. Unfortunately, the use of that salt, calcium ascorbate dihydrate, is not practical to consider for food use. In a proposed rule published Jan. 14, 1983, the Food and Drug Administration concluded that calcium ascorbate should be removed from the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list as a direct human food ingredient.